WWE Officially Moves NXT to Wednesday Nights on USA Network
WWE's NXT is headed to the USA Network and will go up against AEW's new wrestling show on TNT ...
We officially have a wrestling war again.
As has been rumored since the end of last week, WWE is moving its NXT property to USA Network on Wednesday nights beginning on Sept. 18. The show will go up against All Elite Wrestling’s new show on TNT, which begins on Oct. 2 in Washington, D.C.
“The move to USA Network provides an opportunity to deepen our relationship with NBC Universal and further build the NXT brand,” WWE CEO Vince McMahon said in a press release. “Over the long term, our goal is to develop a following that can be monetized to the same level as our flagship programs, Raw and SmackDown.”
According to the release, NXT will air live every Wednesday night but the show will still originate from Full Sail University in Florida, where it has been stationed since 2012.
AEW’s show will travel to different arenas and cities, with shows already sold out in Washington D.C., Boston, and Philadelphia. AEW announced on Monday that its fourth and fifth television shows will be in Pittsburgh and Charleston, West Virginia.
The change in NXT‘s broadcast format means that WWE will have a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule beginning in the fall, with RAW airing on Monday Nights and NXT airing on Wednesday nights on USA Network. SmackDown will then air live on Friday nights on FOX.
WWE touted NXT as WWE Network’s “No. 1 weekly series” and said in the release the brand runs more than 200 events annually and has become “WWE’s third global brand.”
Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks, who is one of AEW’s executive vice presidents, responded on Twitter to the NXT-USA Network news by tweeting “we aren’t scared” in response to the story being reported by The Wrestling Observer.
WWE said that NXT Takeover specials will continue to air on WWE Network. AEW’s next pay-per-view is All Out, scheduled for Aug. 31 in Chicago. The show is headlined by Jon Moxley (the former Dean Ambrose) against Kenny Omega and Hangman Page vs. Chris Jericho for the inaugural AEW World Championship.
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Mike has covered almost everything working for The Eagle Tribune, a paper north of Boston. He can be found in rinks around New England covering college…